Vital MX Pit Bits

In case you missed it, we were a little busy over the last few days for the start of the Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross series. From Press Day all the way through the Press Conference at the end, we were busy writing, shooting, and posting. The end result? Over 120 photos from the pits, practice, and racing, served up piping hot, just as fast as we could get them from the camera to the computer, and out to you.

In case you missed any of them, here are links to the individual pieces.

2007 Amp'd Mobile Supercross: Anaheim 1 Press Day Photos
28 photos

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">2007 Amp'd Mobile Supercross: Anaheim 1 Friday Pit Bits
20 photos

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">2007 Amp'd Mobile Supercross: Anaheim 1 Saturday Pit Bits
30 photos

2007 Amp'd Mobile Supercross Series: Anaheim 1 Photo Gallery and Results
45 photos

The combination of the video overview of Ricky Carmichael's career that played on the Jumbotron, along with the long reception line of friends, family and race team personnel from Pro Circuit, Kawasaki, Honda and Suzuki that opened the show at Anaheim on Saturday night was awesome, as well as very emotional. Mickey Thompson's son, Danny, was also on hand to present RC with the annual Mickey Thompson Award of Excellence. The only glitch was a message on the Jumbotron that read, "The Greastest (sic) of All Time." It's a good thing we never have any typos on here, or we might feel slightly guilty for pointing that one out…

Danny Thompson presented Ricky Carmichael with the Mickey Thompson Award of Excellence.

The second-place finish in RC's last appearance at Anaheim was a tad bittersweet, but not too much should be taken into having never won the season opener. RC's definitely not worried about it. "What happened tonight has no affect on what I've done in my whole career. It doesn't matter to me. I had a great time tonight."

RC was in A1 shape (see the back of his pants), but James Stewart took home the win.

RC was also gracious in his assessment of James' performance. "Actually, the whole night I was chasing my tail a little bit in the 90-degree turns. I couldn't start my turn outside enough and apex in early. James was riding good…he was better. He made that mistake (crashing in the main), I got the lead and he caught me right back. I could keep him in sight, and when he'd make a mistake I'd catch him, but I was just riding that edge. I would try to make up time and drive it in on the inside, and he would just get me on exits. He rode good, there's no two ways about it. His times were really good in practice, and I knew I was going to have my work cut out for me."

James Stewart's win was definitely a bit of redemption following a pair of tough Canadian rounds. "After the Canadian races I knew I had to go back and work some more. I wasn't really too happy about those races."

James also confirmed that the track was tougher than many riders had expected for the start of the season. "After what we went to after Anaheim 1 last year, we kind of started taming them down a little bit. Even the Canadian races weren't that tough. To come out to the first race, it was kind of back to normal again."

We wouldn't do anything silly like suggest James could sweep the rest of the races. But if he can stay mistake-free and crash-free, it's scary what he might be able to accomplish.

"The track was kind of tricky. The whoops were super-big, and the jumps weren't that forgiving. But I felt like when the main event came, I felt like I found a little bit more speed than I had all day. The hardest part of the track was the whoops. It was one of those sections that you could tell it was tough by all of the riders going down. If you weren't ready, you will go down."

James quickly worked past Chad Reed, who had holeshot the main, but regarding his main event crash on the landing of the finish line jump, James said, "I put some good laps in and I was making a few mistakes in the corners. I felt like I started to pick it up, and the next thing I knew I was picking my bike up. It was all tweaked up. I knew I wanted to get around Chad pretty quick where I could set my sights on Ricky. I think I caught him in a lap or two. I just had a sense of urgency tonight. I didn't feel like waiting around. I wanted to get out front, put my head down and ride my laps."

Maybe the biggest surprise of the night was long, lanky Travis Preston, who scored a strong four-place position. With much of the pre-season attention focused on other riders he had to have been happy with his result.

Travis dropping in from the sky over the finish line jump.

Ryan Villopoto's win in the Lites class wasn't a huge surprise, especially after he laid down the fastest lap time in practice by a few thousandths over his Monster Energy Pro Circuit Kawasaki teammate, Chris Gosselaar. Probably a bit more surprising was the performance turned in by the third rider under the Pro Circuit tent, MX2 World Champion, Christophe Pourcel. Christophe was third-quickest in practice, and looked cool, calm and collected all night long, even when Villopoto made sort of a tough pass on him on the second lap of the Lites main event. Ryan explained, saying, "I squared him up a little bit, and as soon as I took off from the little step-up, I knew I was going straight through his line. Obviously no one wants to try and do that, but as soon as I left I knew I wasn't going to be able to stop. I think we bumped a little bit, but luckily he didn't go down."

Ryan was ultra-fast through the whoops.

With one race under his belt, and only two more confirmed races on his schedule (though it sounds like that may be a little flexible), he looked like he was feeling out the whole scene, but we wouldn't be surprised to see Christophe be a little more aggressive next time around.

We know it wasn't his first rodeo, but Christophe Pourcel showed a lot of maturity in his first race in the states. Anaheim 1 is always a pressure-cooker.

Jason Lawrence's third wasn't really a surprise. Everyone's known that he has the raw skill to get the job done, but focus, training and desire had been more of an issue. But it was cool to see the Yamaha of Troy rider put it all together and score a podium in a non-mud race.

A third-place finish and a pair of great starts showed that Jason has more horsepower than last season. Both in his bike, and in the results.

A pair of pre-season favorites in the Lites West division had tough starts to their seasons. Sobe No Fear / Samsung / Honda's Josh Grant rag-dolled hard in the first practice, and missed the second one while visiting a local hospital to get checked his ribs checked out. While he did come back and finish second in his heat race, a seriously bruised lung left him extremely winded, and unable to do the 15-lap main event.

Josh Grant couldn't make the call for the start of the Lites main event. Here's hoping for a better week in Phoenix.

Team Yamaha's Josh Hill also had a rough night, after casing the landing on one of the triples. He blew his hands off the bars when he landed, but unfortunately, his right thumb got snagged on the grip as they were exiting the bars. He had a quick x-ray at the Asterisk Mobile Medical rig which came up negative, but he was riding in some serious pain during his LCQ (which he won), and the main event, where he finished 19th.

Josh Hill not only races a thumper, this thumb was one on Saturday night. Heal up fast, Josh.

Actually, all of Team Yamaha had a tough night…well, with the exception of Broc Hepler, who was probably watching from the stands. Grant Langston was inside the top ten and making forward progress after a tip-over crash, when he went over the bars and down hard, resulting in a DNF for the main event.

Grant Langston's first ride as a full-time 450-class rider is one that he'd probably rather forget. A hard trip over the bars resulted in a DNF.

It might have been the guys riding with injuries who put in the most inspiring rides of the night. L&M Racing's Chad Reed could have used a provisional to make it to the main and avoid even having to ride his heat race and further irritate his already-injured shoulder, but instead chose to make it into the main via the traditional route. If there was any doubt about the pain from his injuries, one look at his face after the main should have taken care of those questions. He looked positively ill. Afterward, he said, "I had to do it. I couldn't sit home on the couch. I want to win this title, and if this is what I've got to do, this is what I've got to do. Man, sometimes you get dealt a sh*tty hand and you've got to pull through." Pull through he did, grabbing the holeshot, and passing back and forth with Ricky Carmichael before settling into his eventual third-place spot.

Just a suggestion for the L&M Racing guys...put Chad in a box between Christmas and the start of the '08 season. There's no doubt that Chad rode in pain, and scoring third-place points was better than being in a deep hole to start the season.

"I knew the start was the most important of my career," Reed said, "I don't know why, but I always holeshot from the outside. I told Paul (Delaurier, Chad's mechanic), 'Make that line perfect, because I'm pulling the trigger.'"

About his duel with Carmichael, Reed told the crowd in the press conference, "I fought with Ricky a little bit, and I don't know why…it was kind of stupid. I was like, 'I'm here, why not fight for it?' You never know. Guys can make mistakes. But I wasn't in any shape to capitalize tonight."

Ivan Tedesco (Makita Suzuki) was also coming back from an injury…namely three broken metacarpals in his left hand from practice at the Toronto round. That had left him with only five weeks for recovery, and seriously hindered his pre-season training. But he led his heat race for several laps, and soldiered to a 14th in the main event. His hand is still sore and tender, but he has seven more points than he'd have had for sitting on the couch.

Ivan Tedesco with his wrapped digits. As long as he stays healthy, we'd expect to see IT's results improve from week-to-week.

We spotted one of our Vital MX members who was racing…er, scheduled to race on Saturday night (at least before he crashed during practice, so we hit Jacob Saylor up for a quick Instant Messenger interview. You can tell about where he figured out that it was a real interview instead of an informal conversation, and he said, "Dang Myspace lingo is a hard habit to break!"

Hey, you made it this far, so you deserve some kind of reward. Want a chance to win a Monster Energy Kawasaki Racing Team Hat like James Stewart was wearing on the podium Saturday night? ">Send GuyB a message via his profile here, and we'll pick a winner at random from the entries received by this Friday, 1/12/06.